Hopfmann v. Connolly

• Decision Date: 22 October 1984
• Docket Number: No. 84-1317,84-1317
• Parties: Alwin E. HOPFMANN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Michael Joseph CONNOLLY, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 97

746 F.2d 97

Alwin E. HOPFMANN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Michael Joseph CONNOLLY, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 84-1317.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Argued Sept. 10, 1984.

Decided Oct. 22, 1984.

Lawrence J. Ball, Detroit, Mich., with whom Stephen P. Dowd, Laurence Elgin, James F. Schoener, Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, Detroit, Mich., were on brief, for plaintiffs, appellants.

Alexander G. Gray, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom Francis X. Bellotti, Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., was on brief, for Michael Joseph Connolly and Francis X. Bellotti, defendants, appellees.

Keith C. Long, Boston, Mass., with whom James Roosevelt, Jr., James H. Wexler, and Herrick & Smith, Boston, Mass., were on brief, for Chester G. Atkins and the Democratic State Committee of Massachusetts, defendants, appellees.

Before CAMPBELL, Chief Judge, COWEN, ^* Senior Circuit Judge, and BOWNES, Circuit Judge.

COWEN, Senior Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts which dismissed appellants' (plaintiffs') complaint. The principal plaintiff, Alwin E. Hopfmann, was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for the office of United States Senator in 1982. He, and four individuals who desired to vote for him, brought this action in the district court against the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Democratic State Committee of Massachusetts (defendants). Plaintiffs sought injunctive and declaratory relief, claiming that a cornucopia of constitutional rights were violated when Hopfmann's name was excluded from the ballot in the Democratic primary. For the reasons to be set forth, we affirm the decision of the district court.

I.

This action is basically an attack on the constitutionality and validity of Article Six, Section III of the Charter of the Massachusetts Democratic Party (the 15 percent rule), which provides that only those candidates who receive 15 percent of the vote on any ballot at the convention may challenge the convention's endorsement in a state primary election. In 1982, Hopfmann failed to obtain 15 percent of the vote and the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ordered his name excluded from the primary ballot. The filing of the complaint followed this action.

After the filing of the complaint, defendants filed motions to dismiss. On June 24, 1982, proceedings were stayed pending the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the related proceeding of Langone v. Secretary of the Commonwealth. A three-judge panel was convened to consider the issues, brought under the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1973 et seq., and on July 7, 1982, the panel denied preliminary relief on the claim. On July 8, 1982, plaintiffs' application, seeking a stay of the denial of preliminary relief and an order directing the Secretary of the Commonwealth to place Hopfmann's name on the Democratic ballot, was denied by Justice Brennan. After resubmittal, it was denied by Justice Rehnquist on July 9, 1982. Hopfmann's petition for a writ of habeas corpus (requesting that his name be placed on the Democratic primary ballot) filed September 20, 1982, was denied by the full United States Supreme Court on October 18, 1982. Plaintiffs' petition for a writ of prohibition and/or mandamus and/or injunction, requesting that Hopfmann's name be placed on the Democratic primary ballot, filed September 30, 1982, was denied by the United States Supreme Court on November 29, 1982. Plaintiffs' application, filed October 25, 1982, seeking a stay of the general election or, in the alternative, a special primary election, was denied by Justice Brennan on October 26, 1982. After resubmittal, it was again denied, by the full United States Supreme Court, on November 1, 1982. Plaintiffs' applications, filed November 5, 1982, to enjoin the Governor of Massachusetts from certifying the election of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the United States Senate from seating him, were also denied by the United States Supreme Court.

A copy of the opinion of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Langone v. Secretary of the Commonwealth, 388 Mass. 185, 446 N.E.2d 43 (1983), was filed with the district court on February 23, 1983. On April 8, 1983, a copy of the order of the United States Supreme Court, dismissing the appeal in that case and denying the alternative petition for certiorari was filed with the district court. Langone v. Connolly, 460 U.S. 1057, 103 S.Ct. 1510, 75 L.Ed.2d 938 (1983).

On April 9, 1984, the district court, treating defendants' motions to dismiss as motions for summary judgment, granted them and dismissed the complaint.

II.

Here, as in the court below, plaintiffs' principal attack on the 15 percent rule is the contention that the enforcement of the rule violates their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The parties are agreed that Hopfmann had complied with the state statutory requirement (Mass.G.L. c. 53) for having his name placed on the primary ballot. To comply with state requirements, candidates must submit nomination papers signed by 10,000 voters. Specifically, plaintiffs argue that since this statutory requirement had been met, the denial of Hopfmann's access to the ballot in the primary election and the deprivation of the rights of the remaining parties to participate in choosing the party's candidates, abridged rights guaranteed to them by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

As stated above, proceedings in the district court were stayed pending the decision in Langone v. Secretary of the Commonwealth, supra, which was decided February 16, 1983. Contrary to plaintiffs' position in this appeal, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held in that case that G.L. c. 53 incorporated the 15 percent rule, and that the rule did not deprive candidates or voters of their rights of free speech, association, due process, or equal protection guaranteed to them by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court summarily dismissed the appeal from that decision for want of jurisdiction in April 1983. Langone v. Connolly, supra. The district court's decision in this case was largely based on the decision of the Supreme Judicial Court and the dismissal of the appeal in that case by the United States Supreme Court.

Relying on Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U.S. 332, 344, 95 S.Ct. 2281, 2289, 45 L.Ed.2d 223 (1975), defendants urge that the dismissal of the appeal by the United States Supreme Court for lack of jurisdiction, i.e., for want of a substantial federal question, is a decision on the merits which is binding on this court and is dispositive of the First and Fourteenth Amendment claims. Citing Maryland v. Baltimore Radio Show, 338 U.S. 912, 919, 70 S.Ct. 252, 255, 94 L.Ed. 562 (1950), plaintiffs respond that it is not clear that the Supreme Court's decision was a dismissal of the appeal, and instead, may be construed as a denial of the petition for certiorari. Consequently, they argue that the decision has no precedential value in this court.

We agree with the contentions of defendants. In Langone v. Connolly, the appellants couched their jurisdictional statement in the alternative, requesting that the statement be treated as an appeal under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1257(2), and to the extent that the statement would not be considered an appeal under that subsection, they requested that it be treated as a petition for certiorari under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1257(3). The order of dismissal of the United States Supreme Court stated:

The appeals are dismissed for want of jurisdiction. Treating the papers whereon the appeals were taken as petitions for writs of certiorari, certiorari is denied. [Emphasis added.]

We find that the circumstances in Langone v. Connolly show that plaintiffs' application to the United States Supreme Court was treated as an appeal under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1257(2) and dismissed. The dissent of Justice Stevens, in which Justice Rehnquist and Justice O'Connor joined, leads us to that conclusion. The dissent of Justice Stevens stated in part:

These appeals present substantial, unresolved questions regarding the accommodation of competing First Amendment values; the interests of would-be candidates and voters in eligibility for the ballot, and the interests of party members in political association without undue governmental intrusion. * * *

The case is properly before this Court on appeal.

* * *

* * *

460 U.S. at 1057 and 1058, 103 S.Ct. at 1510 and 1511, 75 L.Ed.2d at 938 and 939.

The language in the majority's dismissal of the petition is understandable when read in conjunction with appellants' jurisdictional statement. We think that the majority of the Supreme Court was taking an extra precaution to deny the application in toto, since the order stated that the appeal was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, but that if the papers were treated as a petition for certiorari, the petition was also denied.

In holding that the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Langone v. Connolly is final and binding, we are mindful of Justice Brennan's concurring opinion in Mandell v. Bradley, 432 U.S. 173, 97 S.Ct. 2238, 53 L.Ed.2d 199 (1977), giving narrow scope to summary dispositions by the United States Supreme Court. In pertinent part, that opinion states:

After today, judges of the state and federal systems are on notice that before deciding a case on the authority of a summary disposition by this Court in another case, they must (a) examine the jurisdictional statement in the earlier case to be certain that the constitutional questions were the same and if they were, (b) determine that the judgment in fact rests upon decision of those questions, not...